Here is an international disco and funk episode, mostly from the former Soviet region and Eastern Europe (Uzbekistani cosmic disco anyone? Latvian funk? Try it you might like it!) but also from Spain, Italy and Belgium and Egypt. We also have some rock/metal mashups and covers including from Japan, French electronica, UK dub and punk, American indie and psych, neo-classical from Scandinavia and some very silly mashups.

We are the veritable United Nations of Music, and about to all go and leave NATO, start WW3 and Brexit it up for everyone, predictably…if it wasn’t so hot!

It probably is the best disco and funk mix I’ve done for a long time, if ever…it’s recommended (if I say so myself)

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/26/rc-288-milk-and-honey-and-other-scaphic-desires/feed/0The Soviets are Coming! And the Beat it uses you, Comrade! Novichoka Can (or bottle). Too soon? Here is an international disco and funk episode, mostly from the former Soviet region and Eastern Europe (Uzbekistani cosmic disco anyone? Latvian funk?
Here is an international disco and funk episode, mostly from the former Soviet region and Eastern Europe (Uzbekistani cosmic disco anyone? Latvian funk? Try it you might like it!) but also from Spain, Italy and Belgium and Egypt. We also have some rock/metal mashups and covers including from Japan, French electronica, UK dub and punk, American indie and psych, neo-classical from Scandinavia and some very silly mashups.
We are the veritable United Nations of Music, and about to all go and leave NATO, start WW3 and Brexit it up for everyone, predictably…if it wasn’t so hot!
It probably is the best disco and funk mix I’ve done for a long time, if ever…it’s recommended (if I say so myself)Original Disco Project Genuine 501 Rayban Oakley Bitcoin Work At Home Brides Say Hello! (197Mb, 2:15)

]]>Radio Clashyes2:15:3926279Blue Americahttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/23/blue-america/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/23/blue-america/#respondMon, 23 Jul 2018 20:46:37 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26275Kind of tired of people saying This is America by Childish Gambino is ‘Song of the Year’ or someshit, so here’s a mashup that gives it respect it deserves. Great video, boring lazy song tbh. Without that video and the…

Kind of tired of people saying This is America by Childish Gambino is ‘Song of the Year’ or someshit, so here’s a mashup that gives it respect it deserves.

Great video, boring lazy song tbh. Without that video and the million thinkpieces it would be nowhere…usually I’m on board with songs of the year, they last a few listens, like ‘Call Me Maybe’ or even ‘Hotline Bling’ as much as I hate Drake, the Timmy Thomas pulls it through…but this didn’t last that long. Yawn.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/23/blue-america/feed/026275Drinkhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/16/drink/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/16/drink/#respondMon, 16 Jul 2018 04:05:03 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26269A simple idea – put a large bucket of water out with a waterproof Go Pro at the bottom, and film the results. It probably helps to be in the desert, but still…fascinating the ripples and the animals that come…

A simple idea – put a large bucket of water out with a waterproof Go Pro at the bottom, and film the results. It probably helps to be in the desert, but still…fascinating the ripples and the animals that come to drink, and strangely relaxing. Well apart from the intro ‘news theme’ which I could lose. But the rest, yes I could watch hours of that. (via Boing Boing)

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/16/drink/feed/026269It’s coming h…. LOLhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/12/its-coming-h-lol/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/12/its-coming-h-lol/#respondThu, 12 Jul 2018 13:08:27 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26263I have total schadenfreude about England crashing out of the World Cup, if I’d bet on it I would have gone for the traditional quarter finals penalties, surprised they made the semis, but really, what did you really expect? Had…

I have total schadenfreude about England crashing out of the World Cup, if I’d bet on it I would have gone for the traditional quarter finals penalties, surprised they made the semis, but really, what did you really expect? Had to put up with endless chants of ‘It’s Coming Home!’ over the last few weeks, so great to have some peace at last. The silence after the game was delicious.

The Premier League spends it’s time training Croatians and other nationalities and not purely players from England – or even the UK, and those English players it does train tend not to sign up to play abroad, so they don’t get used to how other international sides play. And the league trains them how to play a specific defensive type of game that doesn’t work internationally.

So it’s not a surprise…want football to ‘come home’? Get rid of the Premier League and have more international games, and encourage more English players and less foreign signings, and encourage existing English talent to go play abroad. But that will never happen – too much money involved.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/12/its-coming-h-lol/feed/026263Macarena of Puppetshttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/11/macarena-of-puppets/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/11/macarena-of-puppets/#respondWed, 11 Jul 2018 15:21:20 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26258Genius – who did this? Petr Gorst – is that the actually mashup artist? And where can I get a decent download?

Podcast also brought to you from ‘Upgrading to High Sierra Screw You Up’ and recording parts up to 8 (yes 8, count ’em kids) times and it getting less professional each time, contrary to popular opinion. Ugh, technology, who’d have it (see also: kids, parents, pets and neither).

It works really well as a mix and all the best stuff which has been cut from other podcasts has finally made it here

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/07/05/rc-287-tarquin-likes-reggae/feed/0Tarquin likes reggae, Mary Berry likes reggae and she especially likes a Punky Reggae Electronica Soundtrack Jungle Goth Metal Acid Psych Cat Dog & Harmonica Party! With Added new! Improved! Washes whiter! Natural! Mogwai,
Podcast also brought to you from ‘Upgrading to High Sierra Screw You Up’ and recording parts up to 8 (yes 8, count ’em kids) times and it getting less professional each time, contrary to popular opinion. Ugh, technology, who’d have it (see also: kids, parents, pets and neither).
It works really well as a mix and all the best stuff which has been cut from other podcasts has finally made it here 😛Reggae Bagpipes, big in 2019, you heard it here first (202Mb, 2:21)

]]>Radio Clashyes2:21:0526223RC 286: Gardeners Of The Galaxyhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/19/rc-286-gardeners-of-the-galaxy/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/19/rc-286-gardeners-of-the-galaxy/#commentsTue, 19 Jun 2018 08:03:46 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26195Uphill Gardeners of the Galaxy Unite! It’s Pride month and we’re going to get out the Walkman (or Zune) and get down to some Sounds of The Seventies, drum and bass, indie, disco,, electro pop, new wave, psych rock, AOR,…

It’s Pride month and we’re going to get out the Walkman (or Zune) and get down to some Sounds of The Seventies, drum and bass, indie, disco,, electro pop, new wave, psych rock, AOR, electronica, 60’s pop, metal, neo-classical and some crazy covers. Probably naked in the garden, that’ll scare the snails….

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/19/rc-286-gardeners-of-the-galaxy/feed/2Uphill Gardeners of the Galaxy Unite! It’s Pride month and we’re going to get out the Walkman (or Zune) and get down to some Sounds of The Seventies, drum and bass, indie, disco,, electro pop, new wave, psych rock, AOR,
It’s Pride month and we’re going to get out the Walkman (or Zune) and get down to some Sounds of The Seventies, drum and bass, indie, disco,, electro pop, new wave, psych rock, AOR, electronica, 60’s pop, metal, neo-classical and some crazy covers. Probably naked in the garden, that’ll scare the snails….HOLY SLUGBALLS! (202Mb / 2:15)

]]>Radio Clashyes2:15:1926195George Michael vs Slayerhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/18/george-michael-vs-slayer/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/18/george-michael-vs-slayer/#respondMon, 18 Jun 2018 06:00:58 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26189Not usually do I post mashups here, only the best will do. And this George Michael ‘Careless Whisper’ vs Slayer’s ‘Seasons in the Abyss’ is very nicely done by Bill McClintock. I would say this is how to annoy Slayer…

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/18/george-michael-vs-slayer/feed/026189Barefaced Greekhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/14/barefaced-greek/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/14/barefaced-greek/#respondThu, 14 Jun 2018 08:27:08 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26182Talking as I was in the last post of taking culture to children, I went to a discussion at Senate House about the work of Barefaced Greek, who aimed originaly to take ancient greek texts and make short videos for…

Talking as I was in the last post of taking culture to children, I went to a discussion at Senate House about the work of Barefaced Greek, who aimed originaly to take ancient greek texts and make short videos for 14-15 year olds, although it seems they have a wider audience now.

They are in the original ancient greek and subtitled, which works surprisingly well. The video above from Women of Troy by Euripides, is a powerful – and current – look at the ravages of war, but also a chilling statement about how the Gods interfere with the lives of men, just as our lives are interfered by forces out of our control, such as bosses, the State, leaders, world events. And apparently there is more to come from Women of Troy, and Aristophanes (yay!).

John and I spoke to the director after, she was really interesting, she works a lot with kids and Greek Theatre. One to watch definitely, and I would love a full film of this – someone give these people funding to do that? Surprised Channel 4 or BBC aren’t all over this, because as she said in the talk, so many things out there for teenagers and beyond to teach Shakespeare, but very little recently about ancient Greek theatre. I certainly would have preferred to learn more about ancient Greece, than the piles of dusty Romans and Middle Ages/Tudors anyday.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/14/barefaced-greek/feed/026182Same as it ever washttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/13/same-as-it-ever-was/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/13/same-as-it-ever-was/#respondWed, 13 Jun 2018 18:25:27 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26174Love this cover of Talking Heads ‘Once In A Lifetime’ by Angelique Kidjo – reclaiming and rebooting those African rhythms. She’s recorded the whole of Remain In Light, adding her own lyrics and style, so it comes full circle. I…

Love this cover of Talking Heads ‘Once In A Lifetime’ by Angelique Kidjo – reclaiming and rebooting those African rhythms. She’s recorded the whole of Remain In Light, adding her own lyrics and style, so it comes full circle. I love her take on appropriation – she doesn’t see why it’s a problem if it’s done with love or respect, and points out that African artists have been as inspired by the West as much as the West has been inspired by African rhythms and songs from the Blues onwards. It’s a trade-off.

Also find it funny those who are on a power trip, wanting to be the New Gatekeepers of what goes with this trade of cultural ideas – quite often have swallowed whole the ideas of the oppressor, the divisive identity politics, the privilege wars, the oppression olympics. All the stuff of cis white straight academe and is a new sort of imperialism, a new sort of toxic colonialism, trying to keep cultures in amber, in some heritage museum.

Some if it is useful, but quite often frames things in that Western privileged construct which avoids talking about class, it surprisingly doesn’t escape that restriction – let alone into the developing world where it should be the starting point.

Funnily enough some of them call themselves Marxists or socialists, which is wrong – if you want to divide people into labels and boxes, that isn’t forming any sort of unity…those ideas are problematic under Marx, for to divide the working class is to be conquered by those who profit from such division. It’s positively Ayn Randian if you look at it, the Cult of Me, Thatcher’s (grand)children exposing individuality over all. United we stand, divided we fall.

“I get tired of people who call themselves purists. Before you start talking about “purity,” look at yourself: Are you pure? What is pure in your surroundings? What is pure in nature? The rhetoric of purity, that’s what brought Hitler to power—looking for a pure race. We are not perfect, and that’s why we are brothers and sisters. The fact that we keep ourselves divided is exactly what the people in power want us to do. The more divided you are, the more power you give them, and the more they can kill you.”

And as she points out in that article, with Trump it’s surprising how the Reagan-era songs are so relevant now, corruption, the American Dream, confusion, anxiety…the Cold War themes. Like on her take of Born Under The Punches:

I’ve always been thankful for all the different kinds of artists that my parents were able to bring to me. My father would say, “Music is the language you speak. You belong to that. The music I’m bringing home is for you to be able to get out of this house, and wherever you go, you’ll feel comfortable.”

Also love her take on cultural mobility – people argue why kids need to learn the arts, culture, anything other that maths and english and what they need to get a job. But such knowledge aids movement – through social situations, other places, cultures or just of the mind. As as my father says, art is WHY you live, the rest is how. Why I think teaching the arts is important, being exposed to a wide range of culture, art, music is essential – it lets you engage with the world and it’s people.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/13/same-as-it-ever-was/feed/026174Poll: How do you listen to Radio Clash?https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/01/poll-how-do-you-listen-to-radio-clash/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/01/poll-how-do-you-listen-to-radio-clash/#respondFri, 01 Jun 2018 07:05:25 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26167I put up a simple poll on the Facebook page, but annoyingly it only allows two options. I genuinely want to know how you listen to Radio Clash, not as some marketing/engagement bumpf but for future site development, testing, whether…

]]>I put up a simple poll on the Facebook page, but annoyingly it only allows two options. I genuinely want to know how you listen to Radio Clash, not as some marketing/engagement bumpf but for future site development, testing, whether to keep submitting the show to mobile app directories etc. I have some idea via the stats but there are an awful lot of ‘unknown devices’ and ‘unknown agents’ there.

So tell me, how do you listen to Radio Clash Podcast (if you do at all?). Select as many as you like which apply, and it’s anonymous and I think GDPR-friendly.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/06/01/poll-how-do-you-listen-to-radio-clash/feed/026167Girlfriendhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/28/girlfriend/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/28/girlfriend/#respondSun, 27 May 2018 23:01:20 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26154Loving the new song by Christine and the Queens (or just Chris?) – Girlfriend featuring DâM-FunK…lovely summery funky Chic-style vibes, sounded great at Duckie last night. The French version seems more serious, it’s called Damn Dis-Moi (Damn Tell Me) and…

Loving the new song by Christine and the Queens (or just Chris?) – Girlfriend featuring DâM-FunK…lovely summery funky Chic-style vibes, sounded great at Duckie last night. The French version seems more serious, it’s called Damn Dis-Moi (Damn Tell Me) and I wish I had a better translation of it that Google Translate. Songs are similar but also different.

And the video has that whole West Side Story / Mary Poppins thing going on.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/28/girlfriend/feed/026154You’ve got to learn to glide and glinthttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/27/youve-got-to-learn-to-glide-and-glint/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/27/youve-got-to-learn-to-glide-and-glint/#respondSun, 27 May 2018 22:23:50 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26150Missed the Bad Lip Reading of the Royal Wedding…it’s a classic, especially the ending (via Andy Churchill)

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/27/youve-got-to-learn-to-glide-and-glint/feed/026150Big Brother is called Alexa & Hey Google Killhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/23/big-brother-is-called-alexa-hey-google-kill/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/23/big-brother-is-called-alexa-hey-google-kill/#respondWed, 23 May 2018 18:24:48 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26120Last month the news hit that Google is working with the US Military in creating recognition AI for military drones This made quite a few staff leave unhappy with the idea their technology is aiding killing people (and made a…

Last month the news hit that Google is working with the US Military in creating recognition AI for military drones This made quite a few staff leave unhappy with the idea their technology is aiding killing people (and made a mockery of their ‘Don’t Be Evil’ slogan, but as we know those ethical qualms disappeared years ago). Also it leads further down the path of Skynet in Terminator and other sci-fi dystopias – the scary idea of autonomous killing machines.

This is all making Alexa creepily Big Brother like, which as we know she’s listening all the time – but the people who made themselves guinea pigs to this software are aiding the use of watching minority communities with body cameras and CCTV – the former ironically called for to protect the public from police abuses, but could be the primary tool for a new age of surveillance.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/23/big-brother-is-called-alexa-hey-google-kill/feed/026120RC 285: War of the Roseshttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/23/rc-285-war-of-the-roses/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/23/rc-285-war-of-the-roses/#respondWed, 23 May 2018 17:50:12 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26116Sun is shining, the weather is sweet, make you want to move your plant pots out of the way of builder’s feet… Welcome to the jungle, how does your garden grow? Badly in my case, the builders are in and…

]]>Sun is shining, the weather is sweet, make you want to move your plant pots out of the way of builder’s feet…

Welcome to the jungle, how does your garden grow? Badly in my case, the builders are in and wrecking the place. This was the view from my window – but I celebrate in the gloom with some great new-ish pop, old northern soul, metal, goth metal, Belgian New Beat, rock, indie, country, new wave, funk, psych, reggae, neo-classical and one for the dutty ravers: a 30 minute mix with new and old ragga jungle, drum and bass, liquid and old skool rave.

This show is dedicated to Rob Dickeson, Scott Hutchison, Susan Fassbender and those musical greats we have lost to suicide, it was Mental Health Awareness Week last week after all.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/23/rc-285-war-of-the-roses/feed/0Sun is shining, the weather is sweet, make you want to move your plant pots out of the way of builder’s feet… Welcome to the jungle, how does your garden grow? Badly in my case, the builders are in and…Read the postRC 285: War of the Roses
Welcome to the jungle, how does your garden grow? Badly in my case, the builders are in and wrecking the place. This was the view from my window – but I celebrate in the gloom with some great new-ish pop, old northern soul, metal, goth metal, Belgian New Beat, rock, indie, country, new wave, funk, psych, reggae, neo-classical and one for the dutty ravers: a 30 minute mix with new and old ragga jungle, drum and bass, liquid and old skool rave.
This show is dedicated to Rob Dickeson, Scott Hutchison, Susan Fassbender and those musical greats we have lost to suicide, it was Mental Health Awareness Week last week after all.Let’s blow those dark clouds away (201Mb / 2:19)

]]>Radio Clashyes2:19:4126116Presets – Downtown Shutdownhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/22/presets-downtown-shutdown/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/22/presets-downtown-shutdown/#respondMon, 21 May 2018 23:28:19 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26104Somehow I missed the fact that Presets have a new album out in just over a week on the 1st of June called Hi-Viz. One of the singles released this month was this, Downtown Shutdown, which ostensibly is a party…

Somehow I missed the fact that Presets have a new album out in just over a week on the 1st of June called Hi-Viz. One of the singles released this month was this, Downtown Shutdown, which ostensibly is a party anthem, but I think given past secretly political songs like ‘My People’ I suspect the shutdown might also be of a political sort. Certainly this would rock a Pride Parade.

Earlier in the year they released 14U+14ME…similarly great video which makes me wonder if that’s motion stock footage – the fakeness of the emotions in the people stands out. I hope they tour the UK at some point, I’d love to see them, never managed it so far – the last two albums still haven’t left my iPod, many years later.

And last year – Do What You Want which I’m guessing is also on the album? Very catchy:

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/22/presets-downtown-shutdown/feed/026104This Is America – Call Me Maybe?https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/13/this-is-america-call-me-maybe/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/13/this-is-america-call-me-maybe/#respondSun, 13 May 2018 07:15:30 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26087Amazing that some get their knickers in a twist about this, a free media and especially one that points out the shallow nature of escapism and pop culture (something Mr Glover was guilty of too) also should be one open…

Amazing that some get their knickers in a twist about this, a free media and especially one that points out the shallow nature of escapism and pop culture (something Mr Glover was guilty of too) also should be one open to parody, humour and critique. No shibboleths. ‘Srs Message is Srs’ – sorry, it’s also pop culture too?

And this is really well timed, and funny…shows you some of the actually funny/quirky moves Childish Gambino does, which I liked from the original video. (via Solcofn)

“Ahoy m8eys! Here be da jam, landlubbers and accordion freakz, over 10 glorious minuten of Despacito by that Justin Beaver person (never heard of ‘im) on God’s Own Instrument, the Holiest of the Holies, The Mighty Accordion. And they drop it like it’s HOT with some xylophone, go LARGE in Ibeefa with panpipe action, KICK it into space with da senseless violinz, and even a bit of sax but we don’t want to talk about that…L8ers!”

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/12/despacito-accordion-megamix/feed/026083Conservative Apocalypsehttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/09/conservative-apocalypse/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/09/conservative-apocalypse/#commentsWed, 09 May 2018 05:16:32 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26079I was wondering what Funki ‘It’s A Long Road‘ Porcini was up to after a friend posted a reference to the track that basically with The Orb rewired my post Brit Pop 90’s back to electronica, psych, lounge music, ambient,…

I was wondering what Funki ‘It’s A Long Road‘ Porcini was up to after a friend posted a reference to the track that basically with The Orb rewired my post Brit Pop 90’s back to electronica, psych, lounge music, ambient, library music and yes even a bit of jazz.

And in doing so I found this video from 2016 in a similar vein to that recent ‘watch the birdie in the background’ Childish Gambino video, Conservative Apocalypse.

Lots of work has gone into this, love the attention to detail…like a more political Cyriak, you’ll pause a lot.

With little-handed yellow hanky Donny coming over to the UK in July 13th (a Friday no less! See you there) it’s worth watching a timely PSA from another Donald – Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino. Initially it took me a few watches to get this – the first time was just shock – WTF IS THAT? It’s not for the squeamish or small children, although sadly they’ve probably seen far more than this on the news or in films – but the details are in the background, which is partly the point.

The song is mostly dumb, although I think that’s intentional, it’s a biting parody of selfie-culture, popular dances and bling distracting from what’s really going on, the mass shootings, the executions and strife in the US. And the fact that people currently get off scot-free or lesser than others because of the NRA, because of the colour of their skin, because, because, because. I suspect the ending – which is pure cinema – is because he dared to stop and toke a joint. Yes, we live in a weird world where you can show people being shot, killed, mass destruction, even to kids, but dare show natural things like nudity or sex which are literally creative, or drugs and it’s X-rated all the way. Crazy.

Ironically my posting and watching of this was interrupted by a drunken intruder into our garden, pissing next to the windows to our flat, which was very scary. It was a zombie level coda to this video, now always linked. This Is Britain as well? We are dancing into a nightmare too.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/07/this-is-america/feed/026075Bootie Goes Gothhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/06/bootie-goes-goth/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/06/bootie-goes-goth/#respondSat, 05 May 2018 23:47:21 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26049I think it’s about time for a mashup revival – not what mashups have become now, the multi-mash medley and EDM vs EDM vs EDM ‘bangers’ which do want to make me bang – my head against a very sharp…

]]>I think it’s about time for a mashup revival – not what mashups have become now, the multi-mash medley and EDM vs EDM vs EDM ‘bangers’ which do want to make me bang – my head against a very sharp rock because it’s actually more fun than listening to them! No, what mashups USED to be.

Case in point, if you want a refresher in the past wondrousness of mashups, try the new Bootie Goes Goth compilation which spans countries and eras to bring a whole batload of dark gothy mashups back like a zombie at a revivalist past-life convention during the Rapture…

Gordyboy? Check, I’m sure we’d all like a higher quality more polished version for these modern times, but his Bjork vs Cure mashup still sounds as fresh as ever even though it’s circa what, 2003? Didn’t know he made a video for this. Or if I once did, I forgot (I’m getting old, memory is not what it once was) Where is he now?

DJ Tripp spinning NIN’s Closer (a classic and oft-mashed choice back in the day) with Ace of Base and despite the comedy value which quickly pales for most of those – CHECK YEAH! It really works and I remember digging this back then.

NIN comes back for Happy Cat Disco which if you looked up “Classic Bootie-floor-filling mashup”: HELLO I’M RICK JAMES B****! HELLO DURAN DURAN! this would sound exactly like this – and that’s not a criticism.

LeeDM101 – where is he now? – did that moody slow mashup to such perfection I’m sure Colatron used to listen to his mashups at night, crying (love you Andy! :-P)…to the point he almost beats the best ever Kate Bush mashup EVER. (DJ Magnet, yr welcome). I suspect this is a response/flip of that.

And I randomly came across that Lobsterdust – Soft Cell vs Depeche Mode bootleg recently, and still think it’s genius. (EDIT: glad the video uses the frankly *some* bizarre torturing a small child Soft Cell video. Not literally, but watch it, it seems like Marc is bullying the poor thing…early SC videos were quite transgressive and strange).

PomDeter’s Call Me A Hole is always welcome, something that now has a life of it’s own, that even surprises it’s creator I think. NIN vs Leona L…sorry Carly Rae Jepsen. Whatever happened to her, etc?

L&P mashing up Funkytown with Rob Zombie is just RIDICULOUS, with added dutch house (cf Afrojack but Swanky Tunes here? Apparently Russian but the same thing) silliness. Didn’t really get much of the electro-with-masks era of L&P really, but this is a nice by-product of that. Doesn’t really need the dutch house, I’d say…but the rest is ace.

And on and on…it’s a breath of fresh air to hear the old and new sit together and it not be a complete car crash, which I suspect it a lot to do with the choices of DJ Adrian, but I can also hear it’s a personal thing as well. The (dark?) love shows. You can download it here.

And if you want to hear more of many of the early mashups and artists featured here, our very own Bootleg Archive isn’t a bad place to start.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/06/bootie-goes-goth/feed/026049RC 284: John Barry – Bond and Beyondhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/02/rc-284-john-barry-bond-and-beyond/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/02/rc-284-john-barry-bond-and-beyond/#respondWed, 02 May 2018 16:33:46 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26041First guest show of the new! improved! sans microplastiques! gluten free! Radio Clash with Ian Fondue of The Lloydbrary and it’s about the soundtrack genius John Barry and his music for film and TV. We range from brit-pop to international…

]]>First guest show of the new! improved! sans microplastiques! gluten free! Radio Clash with Ian Fondue of The Lloydbrary and it’s about the soundtrack genius John Barry and his music for film and TV.

We range from brit-pop to international hip-hop, twang to triphop, funky breaks and forgotten songs, drum and bass to disco, big beat to big band jazz and surprising films with soundtrack loveliness . And we discuss who should’ve done the Octopussy theme, how Andy Williams shouldn’t be let anywhere near disco and invent a new children’s TV show/music genre mixed with HP Lovecraft. As you do.

It’s also the first on-location podcast in a very long time so it’s coming from the Lloydbrary Secret Lair, hidden from spies at the bottom of the garden.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/05/02/rc-284-john-barry-bond-and-beyond/feed/0First guest show of the new! improved! sans microplastiques! gluten free! Radio Clash with Ian Fondue of The Lloydbrary and it’s about the soundtrack genius John Barry and his music for film and TV. We range from brit-pop to international…Read the post...The Lloydbrary and it’s about the soundtrack genius John Barry and his music for film and TV.
We range from brit-pop to international hip-hop, twang to triphop, funky breaks and forgotten songs, drum and bass to disco, big beat to big band jazz and surprising films with soundtrack loveliness . And we discuss who should’ve done the Octopussy theme, how Andy Williams shouldn’t be let anywhere near disco and invent a new children’s TV show/music genre mixed with HP Lovecraft. As you do.
It’s also the first on-location podcast in a very long time so it’s coming from the Lloydbrary Secret Lair, hidden from spies at the bottom of the garden.Emily is definitely Blofeld, cat and all… (1:56, 161Mb)

]]>Radio Clashyes1:56:1126041Mash Malonehttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/24/mash-malone/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/24/mash-malone/#respondTue, 24 Apr 2018 20:27:38 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26034I was surprised there haven’t been more Post Malone mashups or albums, especially as he seems very much the man of the moment with a new album about to drop – and then a whole album comes along from the…

]]>I was surprised there haven’t been more Post Malone mashups or albums, especially as he seems very much the man of the moment with a new album about to drop – and then a whole album comes along from the other man of the moment American mashup artist Grave Danger and NZ posse Felix Five and MsMiep.

Particularly like MsMiep’s hiphop take on REM in ‘To The One Too Young’, Felix’s ‘Hymn for the Patient’ and Grave Danger’s ‘Thunder Made Me Do It’, ‘Icarus is Cold’ and ‘Patient Attack’ which the latter brings the hardcore and metal back to Post. Indeed he started in metal bands and as a singer-songwriter not a rapper, and so his roots are as much indie, metal, grunge and emo as much as say, Wiz Khalifa.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/24/mash-malone/feed/026034RC 283: Rubik’s Cube (ETTT)https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/20/rc-283-rubiks-cube-ettt/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/20/rc-283-rubiks-cube-ettt/#respondFri, 20 Apr 2018 08:30:50 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=26025Time to play a game…you have to guess the theme, like RadMac’s Tea Time Theme Time on 6Music, can you work out the theme linking the tracks in the first hour? Can you give up after it ruins your wrists…

]]>Time to play a game…you have to guess the theme, like RadMac’s Tea Time Theme Time on 6Music, can you work out the theme linking the tracks in the first hour?

Can you give up after it ruins your wrists and either peel off all the decals and stick them back on, or take it apart and then reassemble it in the correct order?*

No prizes after the 7th song because it gets progressively easier, but there aren’t any prizes! And I give the solution at the halfway point anyway … Music trivia experts probably will get it in the first couple of songs… I can say the episode includes a lot of 80’s pop, electro-pop and indie, some 1950’s swing and doo-wop, 90’s britpop, folk, post-punk, ska and classic heavy metal….so business as usual.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/20/rc-283-rubiks-cube-ettt/feed/0Time to play a game…you have to guess the theme, like RadMac’s Tea Time Theme Time on 6Music, can you work out the theme linking the tracks in the first hour? Can you give up after it ruins your wrists…Read the postRC 283: Rubik’s Cube (ETTT)
Can you give up after it ruins your wrists and either peel off all the decals and stick them back on, or take it apart and then reassemble it in the correct order?*
No prizes after the 7th song because it gets progressively easier, but there aren’t any prizes! And I give the solution at the halfway point anyway … Music trivia experts probably will get it in the first couple of songs… I can say the episode includes a lot of 80’s pop, electro-pop and indie, some 1950’s swing and doo-wop, 90’s britpop, folk, post-punk, ska and classic heavy metal….so business as usual.
So no tracklist for now…that would spoil the fun, wouldn’t it?You Can Do the Cube with Patrick Bossert* (2:00 / 168Mb)

* Yes I had this book / know people who did this!]]>Radio Clashyes2:00:0826025The Guerrilla Guide To Podcasting Part Fivehttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/16/the-guerrilla-guide-to-podcasting-part-five/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/16/the-guerrilla-guide-to-podcasting-part-five/#respondMon, 16 Apr 2018 08:30:24 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=25898The fifth and final part in a series on making your own podcast that won’t break the bank, concentrating on DIY and low-cost podcasting. Read part one, part two, part three and part four first. Site specific So as soon…

]]>The fifth and final part in a series on making your own podcast that won’t break the bank, concentrating on DIY and low-cost podcasting. Read part one, part two, part three and part four first.

Site specific

So as soon as you have recorded your first podcast, you need somewhere to upload it, and a place for people to subscribe to, and maybe a site for somebody (or Google) to find you. Well worth checking out Diana Stegall’s article which go into this in detail, but I have to say this first, and I’ll shout:

GET A DOMAIN NAME. NOW.

In fact get one before you mention the idea to anyone else, actually, as mentioned in Part 1. The reason is you build all this attention to someone else’s site otherwise, and it’s all thrown away when you eventually move…I hate to bring SEO words into this, but this ‘linkjuice’ is important, and you want it linked to your domain, and not say, disposablepartridge.megacorp.com.

It also took me most of a decade to get my domain, because someone had registered it just before I started, and of course afterwards they saw the site and then wanted LOTS of money for it. Sadly there are particular low-lives who spend their sorry lives registering domains of new companies, or possible new companies, then sit on them demanding a lot of money…so keep schtum until you’ve bought it.

Also switching a feed and links from one site to another is a pain, I’ve done it (Libsyn to my own site) and there’s always a risk that older podcast subscription software might not redirect to your nice shiny URL. It’s rather fraught, so it’s best to start early. One solution to that is if you have a website is to create a redirect and point people to that, so you could have a URL like feed://www.yoursitedomain.com/feed which points to the external feed XML (say feed://showname.libsyn.com/rss for Libsyn). Then you have space to put your own or use other podcasting hosts in future and can publicise the feed with your domain in which is more futureproof. This depends if you can change the .htaccess files (for Apache) or the site configurations for nginx on your hos – you can get more information about both here – you’d probably want a temporary redirect, and still want to manually redirect feed users just in case, but this would mean you don’t have to go and change all the links across sites, tweets, social media etc.

Whether you can do all of this depends on what sort of host you want, or have already. If you’ve got your own website, say as a shared, VPS or dedicated host you could use that, quite often they have easy installs for various blog systems you can create a subscription feed with. Please check how ‘unlimited’ the bandwidth is, and your available webspace. You can always upgrade – I started on shared webspace, with a unlimited ISP webspace offer (thanks Zen Internet, I don’t think they understood how much they unintentionally sponsored Radio Clash in the early days, LOL).

But most people will be better off starting with the likes of Libsyn or Blubrry…these are specific podcast hosts. This is because they help you with things like submitting your podcast to iTunes and other podcast directories. And also they create a mini-site/landing page for your podcast, and you can utilise your nice new domain name and you can point it there.

Before everyone writes in there are loads of other podcast hosts, those are the two biggest but there is also Audioboom, Podbean, Spreaker, Zencast…the list goes on and on and I’ve not tried them. Many I’m guessing arrived after the post-2014 Podcast Revival. Libsyn was one of the first along with Blubrry, so it might be best to go with something well established. And looking through they seem much of a muchness. Also automatically downsampling podcasts to 64k mono (?). I’ve not listed that host on purpose but that would annoy the hell out of me for a paid service, and I think it’s bad practice too. Watch for that.

If you can’t afford those, which are about $5-12 per month, you can go with sites like Podomatic, or Spreaker which have very usable free offerings that don’t expire. I’m not sure if you can use a domain with this, doubtful, I couldn’t find any info about that so I’m guessing you have to go for a paid plan. I’d avoid ‘free’ accounts that delete your old podcasts though after a time, or messes with their quality.

Although Libsyn and Blubrry are the industry leaders – I used to be on Libsyn for many years, and still use the Blubrry WordPress Plugin – I’m a little wary because the offerings are still quite expensive for what they are.

They’re useful when you’re getting on your feet, but it’s just as cheap if you have the technical know-how – or lack of money – to setup your own server, like a Virtual Private Server, a cheap dedicated server or use a shared server. Those run at $5-20+ a month for TERABYTES of bandwidth (believe me, anything but this biggest podcasts will go over that), and gigabytes of space. I guess what you get from those two is the guaranteed uptime and unlimited bandwidth, but I think the weekly size allowances are a bit small, especially for a music show.

Also shared hosting might be better, but check first because some web hosts seem to cripple their shared hosting to push expensive managed business plans at you, complaining about resource/CPU usage on even a small blog site. Their ‘unlimited’ plans aren’t, actually, That’s what happened to me – hence why I use a VPS now.

It’s not for everyone, since you have to become your own server admin, watch uptime etc. So I think for beginners the podcast hosting sites are good, but you might find it better to switch after a while to your own site, certainly it’s the cheaper option if you have the time to learn and monitor it yourself.

There are managed VPSes too, where someone does all the hard work for you, which at the mid-higher end of the podcast plans would be more flexible and bigger than those plans, and probably cheaper.

Template Tudor

Talking about sites leads me to the fun and games of building and designing one. Usually at this point people mention the eye-wateringly expensive Squarespace, the slightly more reasonable Wix, and oddly forget WordPress.com – which you can use free to blog with no catches (podcasting costs a little more)? I’m always wary of being trapped into something I cannot get out of. I’m always looking for an exit, and this is no different…

I’ve used WordPress since 1.2 so I might be biased, but check when these sites say ‘your data is exportable’ which formats they use, and whether you can then install them elsewhere. This is like Google Takeaway…you export your data and get a long file, usually custom, which is nice. It sits there. You look at it. It does nothing except look up to you, expecting you to program some ‘software mashup’ first as if you are a Silicon Valley whiz. Not that helpful.

Whereas I do know that you can start a site on WordPress.com, export it to an XML file or a file that works with a self-hosted blog or some other blog systems. And to begin with, a WordPress.com site is free, it has a subscription feed, not much storage – 1Gb? And you have to pay to use a domain but it’s $3 a month with 6Gb storage. Why not use that to podcast? Or at very least, maybe use another host and have a free blog there – but again, I’d go for something you can use your own domain on, to future-proof it.

Also at the higher plans, or on your own host (which I’d recommend actually) you can make it not look like a blog at all…Wordpress can act more like a simple CMS, many of those business sites you see are actually WordPress sites in disguise.

Also another question to ask – is there any charges to move a ‘free domain’? Quite often these free domains aren’t that free, there are hidden charges, or you don’t actually own the domain, it’s only yours while you are a customer. Why I always myself register the domain with another company. I’m MR Paranoid to you!

But getting something out there, preferably on a domain you own, be it just a landing page with ‘This is our podcast, subscribe here’ is better than nothing, even on the likes of Squarespace or Wix. It’s a lot easier to use blogs to do that, partly because RSS (the technology behind podcasting subscription) came from that world, but in fact it could just be an old-school HTML pointer to a subscription link and the various directories (iTunes, Stitcher etc). Some presence is better than nothing, you can improve it later, whatever those SEO wonks say.

I have to say, as a web designer in a former life, there is nothing like a free lunch. You can create great sites adapting free WordPress themes, or using Squarespace or Wix templates or builder plugins such as WP Bakery or Divi (not tried the latter, heard good things although both of those are paid themes or plugins) but at some point you will need to learn some HTML, CSS and maybe PHP or whatever your site is built on if you can get at the hamsters running frantically in the background.

This is because as much as you can get, buy, find plugins, widgets, or templates, there will always be a case for ‘oh but I want the podcast player to look like this, and have a download button, and can we include the artwork?’ – which means hacking away. These ‘one click’ sites sell a myth that you could just click yourself an eBay today. Nope, that’s not how it works. You can pay someone else to do it, and I might sound like I’m talking myself out of my former job, but I think it’s better to learn something about the site you are using. That way if it breaks, you can maybe fix it, rather than spending hours, days, weeks waiting for someone else to do it. Probably badly.

But on the upside, podcasting sites tend to only need a few things. Firstly a player – this can actually be handled by uploading to the likes of Mixcloud or Soundcloud unless you want your ratings in one place. Podcast hosts (Libsyn, Blubrry) also create code for players you can use to embed their customer’s shows too, as do directories like RadioPublic, and the companies that make the players if you want to go truly DIY (JWPlayer or mediaplayer.js which is also built into WordPress, so the player is created automatically when you post a link).

Then there is links to download the shows, which might be an archive of older shows or posts, blurb about the show, links to social media presence and directories like iTunes, and news or upcoming info if you want to include that. Any more than that is up to you, and will help *SEO alarm* ‘engage’ the audience, pictures, memes, furry dice, rabbits in hats…but those I think are the minimum.

So true

Submission Freak

So you have at least a nice shiny URL to your feed, a show posted to it. Then what?

Apart from showing it to your Mum/Sister/Brother/Dog/Zombie Kittens/passing strangers, you want some listeners don’t you? Well, then you submit it to some podcast directories. I won’t list them all, because there are millions, just a few of the major ones.

Firstly make sure however you’re creating your feed, your email is correct or included. Hacking RSS XML is way beyond this series, but in Blubrry Powerpress plugin there is an Author Email field in the iTunes tab, or if just using WordPress (and I really recommend that plugin even if you don’t host with Blubrry) I think it takes the Settings > General > Email Address field. Or whatever system you are using there should be somewhere to put that address in, make sure it’s included, because you’ll need it as part of the verification process.

Since it launched in 2005, iTunes has been the #1 Podcast Directory, and this is still the case. If you submit to only one, let it be this.

Submitting your podcast via the Grammar-Nazi-baitingly named Podcasts Connect is simple, although you now need an AppleID to add/claim a feed. They will then email a link to the address in the feed (see?) so you can ‘claim’ it and add it to iTunes. Obviously Apple can refuse, but they’ve been fine so far *fingers crossed*. Also make sure at least your podcast name is in ‘Author’ field, because when people download podcasts iTunes will rename and retag the Artist field with this name. I forgot this and recently all my podcasts were downloading as ‘Tim in London’. Oops. Also make sure you have Categories in your feed, it’ll be refused if these are empty. Cue people saying ‘Am I Arts or Sexuality? Or just porn?’

Radio Clash on Google Play…plug plug! Took me ages to get it on there too. So I can brag

Google Play have been trying to steal iTunes thunder for a while now. Jury is out, but given their billions, they might succeed where Zune failed. *I can hear the millennial tumbleweed to that joke*.

Submitting is similar to iTunes, you post the name and the feed URL, BUT for some odd reason only US podcasts are allowed. But by being naughty hacking sorts, you can use a US-based VPN like Hotspot Shield and a new account registered via that VPN to add yours, pretending to be in the US. You might want to remove the country setting from your feed if you added that *ahem*. Might take a while, it did for me as I had to attempt it a few times, but you can get it in there. You also need some Categories defined in your feed, at least one.

RadioPublic is a fairly new one with a nifty app and backed by PRX, the other BBC-like public radio organisation in the US which isn’t NPR. It also has a Paid Listens function, which hasn’t exactly raised the roof for me yet, but if you don’t mind some adverts added at the start and end of your show could be a source of money (you won’t make millions!). This again is simple, fill out a form, get accepted hopefully, etc etc. I was already in the directory, after a while you find new directories already have you listed. So it’s always best to check that you, or some friendly sort hasn’t added you already.

Stitcher – again, fill in the form, wait to see if they accept you, although you have to register an account with them at the same time. Again, you can also monetise your podcast and bathe in the millions of dollars you’ll make. (j/king). But might pay off some server bills, I guess?

TuneIn– fill in the form, wait, etc. Realise you’re bored submitting things to directories, give up on any more.

Spotify – you don’t. Or you make sure you’re with one of their ‘partners’ but I’ve heard they are still very specific about which podcasts to add. Spotify is rumoured to be only interested in a certain ‘demographic’. Which says to me they won’t be an iTunes killer, but we’ll see. Certainly never got back to me about adding mine! #bitter

Finally if you have a site or landing page, you should submit it to Google (needs a Google ID) so it gets onto Google. I get a lot of traffic still via Google, which is why transcripts or at least tracklists are important, and keywords in the posts and the meta. Simple Tags helps with that if you are on WordPress and can install plugins (Business or self-hosted only).

Down the Social

If this was pre-2008 I would have ended this discussion there, but since then the rise of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat et al has meant that for a lot of podcasters their promotion is done in those spaces. You go where your audience is, and that is quite often in social media spaces.

The whole arena of social media promotion, marketing and SEO is beyond this article, and I’d feel dirty if I had to write it. Here are a few things you should be doing, or might help:

Use Hootsuite: it’s free for upto 30 posts across 3 accounts – so Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. The Autoschedule is worth using, keep in mind the default is something like 5 posts per day which I think is quite a lot, reduce that in the settings, and you can also specific whether it posts on certain days, Mon-Fri, Mon-Sat or all week. Most people are around weekdays at work times (8am-6pm) so might be best to post in that window unless you know your audience are active at other times. Obviously, international times can affect that, so you might want to spread it across the evening or morning for those in the US or Europe. Tag people who you talk about, play, review, etc.
An alternative to Hootsuite is Buffer which also has a free plan similar to Hootsuite, max 3 social media accounts with upto 10 posts scheduled for each. Apparently it is easier to use (I’ve not tried it yet) – Hootsuite does seem to have a LOT of menus and options, but that means a trade-off with less features for the hardcore massive. So if Hootsuite is too complex try Buffer, or use both if you’ve maxed out your allowance!

Facebook – create a page for your podcast, and make sure you post to it regularly – at least once or twice a day, or many times a week but spread across the week so it doesn’t annoy. This is because Facebook’s algorithm tends to prioritise pages that are active in the timelines of those who have ‘liked’ or followed it. You can add posts to your page by cross-posting from your blog or other places – I know I keep saying WordPress, when you could actually do this with an IFTTT rule, but there are useful and simple plugins like Jetpack and Facebook Auto Publish – you might need to setup your own FB developer app for the latter, it looks quite daunting but follow the instructions, it’s quite easy.

You are feeling sleeeeepy…you are subscribing to Radio Clash…you are then clicking ‘See first’…you are giving me your credit card number….

Also get your audience to select ‘See First’ in the following drop down, it’ll mean your page isn’t buried. And get as many likes as possible – more likes means more reach, which means your page is shown to more people. Respond quickly to questions and comments, that shows on the page. Create a custom button that links through to your site, and don’t forget to link Mixcloud or other audio sites you might also use to the page.

Do NOT pay for likes, use scams or like farms. Doing so is not only ethical, according to those who have researched it you will get a lot of poor likes and might get your page or account disabled. You will be basically be promoting your site to other bots, especially if you pay for promotions after. Not good.

Also for me the jury is out on ‘paid promotion’, I’m just starting to experiment with it via a free credit. The ability to use a Facebook Pixel – which is a way to track people on external sites is cool if a little spooky, and the ability to create a Custom Audience of people who clicked through one of your apps (see above about cross-posting) and then exclude or include them in future campaigns is very cool.

Targeting certain demographics – countries, ages, interests, likes might have aided Russian bots and Cambridge Analytica (topical, topical – I don’t have red hair though) but I guess they can be used for good to promote your podcast? As you might have guessed I’m rather sceptical about advertising, as someone who used to work in that field, especially when the platform both controls how much or little your page is seen and the visibility of the ads themselves. Thus my cynical side says there is an incentive to limit your audience unless you extort money to access them. We’ll see. I’d also make sure you have alternatives to Facebook, don’t put your eggs in one basket.

Twitter: start an account for your podcast, and post there – you can link blogs or other accounts (IFTTT/Jetpack again, and connections from other systems) so that new posts appear there as a link. Engage with people, tag them, etc. Make sure that your profile includes the link to the podcast, and what it’s about. Don’t spam the show too much, but the odd RT or repost is OK. Make sure it’s not JUST links to your show, post stuff that you’re interested in, memes, videos especially if they are related to the podcast (I’m bad at using my Twitter for non-related things, but then again it does get some visibility, and the odd death threat…oh politics is a dirty game!). If there is candy, people won’t be so bothered by the odd plug. Promote the show beforehand, themes, talk about what’s coming up, build interest, in fact that’s a good general rule for all these sites.

Instagram: have to say I’m new to this, other podcasters swear that thar’s gold in them thar IG hills, but I don’t completely get it. Maybe because I have 78 followers and not the 10,000 you need to be able to post links in stories, or audio podcasts. But apparently posting cover art and images relating to the podcast works to bring people in? Time will tell. Also I know from Snapchat, stories are popular, but I suspect it’s an age thing, I don’t get the idea of posting something that will disappear. Also link your Instagram to your page – this will help with future FB ad campaigns, if you want to go that way.

Email, meetups, forums, blogs, postcards, carrier pigeons: As I said earlier about Facebook and pages, the amount of control that corporates have over access to your audience is disturbing. So make sure you don’t rely on one platform or one company. Mailing lists might seem archaic but surprisingly successful if done well, especially for older audiences. Meetings face to face (remember them?), live podcasting events, networking, t-shirts, giveaways, even local/mainstream press – I mentioned my podcast last month as an aside (I promise it wasn’t my intention to plug) on a radio call-in and got a massive upswing on the Monday of people checking me out. I think people focus purely on social media, the same people who get the same adverts again and again, and forget that, shock horror, there are quite a few people not on FaceTwitSnapgram.

I hope what comes over in that roundup is the idea that building an audience is organic – you go where they are, talk to friends or people you know, they listen, and hopefully suggest it to their friends. It builds slowly, although half the battle is letting people know you are out there, and talking about things they might be into, or them, or playing their band, etc.

There is no magic bullet, and I think a lot of the snake oil around SEO and paid promotions is just that – hot air. If you can mention your podcast on radio, TV, in newspapers, get reviewed, get attention, then do it…it will provide an uptick to views and hopefully subscriptions to your podcast, and some people will just randomly find you. Obviously if you go hide in a hole, nothing will happen, but also if you stress about numbers it will alienate your love for podcasting – I’ve been there. The best thing is to promote what you do, but also have fun doing it, and accept that you won’t be found overnight. Until maybe you are…podcasting is a niche sport, but it can be a very wide niche. Those few people, those that are through being cool might be in every town and city, so go find those spuds.

That’s the last part of this series – I hope you’ve found it useful and go ahead and make sweet, wonderful, podcasts together, or alone!

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/16/the-guerrilla-guide-to-podcasting-part-five/feed/025898RC 282: Ladies Firsthttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/12/rc-282-ladies-first/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/12/rc-282-ladies-first/#respondThu, 12 Apr 2018 08:00:46 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=25968This is a response to the frankly whack Guardian listicle about the greatest female rappers that James (hi!) sent to me and Kirk. 4/10 – that’s not only my ‘see me after class’ score, it’s also the paltry amount I…

]]>This is a response to the frankly whack Guardian listicle about the greatest female rappers that James (hi!) sent to me and Kirk. 4/10 – that’s not only my ‘see me after class’ score, it’s also the paltry amount I agree with.

It reads like some bored intern trawled wikipedia and didn’t bother to venture past 1988 nor 90’s gangsta rap (I mean where is Sha-Rock? Monie Love? Kate Tempest? Queen Latifah? MC Lyte? Any of the Roxannes? Where is grime or any UK rappers bar Neneh?). You’d expect that from Buzzfeed but not a major newspaper. In fact looking around there are a lot of ‘best female rapper’ articles out there with some pretty terrible choices that don’t know their history, or are stuck in some mid 90’s wannabe-G bubble.

So prepare to be schooled!

This is my top err, 29 female rappers or rap crews, I often prefer female rappers to their male counterparts. Especially when formulaic gangsta rap dumbed down hip-hop, it was one of the few places you could hear real lyrical flow, dexterity, wit and intelligence. This was when middle class boys were boringly and lazily bragging about imaginary scenarios popping glocks and dealing ‘caine (yeah most of them are about as gangsta as I was, growing up in leafy Surrey!). The women were usually talking about real-world issues I could relate to.

The cover is based on the original UK artwork for Ladies First, but I can’t find a credit for the artist? Looks very Keith Haring inspired, or indeed is KH, but it’ll have to go down in history with the many ‘Great Unknown Artists’

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/12/rc-282-ladies-first/feed/0This is a response to the frankly whack Guardian listicle about the greatest female rappers that James (hi!) sent to me and Kirk. 4/10 – that’s not only my ‘see me after class’ score, it’s also the paltry amount I…Read the postRC 282: Ladies Firstfrankly whack Guardian listicle about the greatest female rappers that James (hi!) sent to me and Kirk. 4/10 – that’s not only my ‘see me after class’ score, it’s also the paltry amount I agree with.
It reads like some bored intern trawled wikipedia and didn’t bother to venture past 1988 nor 90’s gangsta rap (I mean where is Sha-Rock? Monie Love? Kate Tempest? Queen Latifah? MC Lyte? Any of the Roxannes? Where is grime or any UK rappers bar Neneh?). You’d expect that from Buzzfeed but not a major newspaper. In fact looking around there are a lot of ‘best female rapper’ articles out there with some pretty terrible choices that don’t know their history, or are stuck in some mid 90’s wannabe-G bubble.
So prepare to be schooled!
This is my top err, 29 female rappers or rap crews, I often prefer female rappers to their male counterparts. Especially when formulaic gangsta rap dumbed down hip-hop, it was one of the few places you could hear real lyrical flow, dexterity, wit and intelligence. This was when middle class boys were boringly and lazily bragging about imaginary scenarios popping glocks and dealing ‘caine (yeah most of them are about as gangsta as I was, growing up in leafy Surrey!). The women were usually talking about real-world issues I could relate to.

The cover is based on the original UK artwork for Ladies First, but I can’t find a credit for the artist? Looks very Keith Haring inspired, or indeed is KH, but it’ll have to go down in history with the many ‘Great Unknown Artists’ ]]>Radio Clashyes2:01:3525968Shimmy Shimmy Mumm-Rahttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/12/shimmy-shimmy-mumm-ra/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/12/shimmy-shimmy-mumm-ra/#respondThu, 12 Apr 2018 00:06:27 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=25979Swedemason popped up again recently with his Rabbit Hole Macca video doing the rounds again, so it’s nice to see something new from him – it’s Mumm-Ra from Thundercats doing ODB’s Shimmy Shimmy Ya. (via DJ Lumpy/b3ta) It’s not too…

Swedemason popped up again recently with his Rabbit Hole Macca video doing the rounds again, so it’s nice to see something new from him – it’s Mumm-Ra from Thundercats doing ODB’s Shimmy Shimmy Ya. (via DJ Lumpy/b3ta)

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/12/shimmy-shimmy-mumm-ra/feed/025979Anthologised by Cherry Redhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/09/anthologised-by-cherry-red/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/09/anthologised-by-cherry-red/#respondMon, 09 Apr 2018 20:45:51 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=25961Some songs are too good to be ‘blipverted‘ and this is one. Heard via the frankly odd confines of Dandelion Radio. As the host said, probably too pop for Dandelion, which is a great place to be, but it’s probably…

Some songs are too good to be ‘blipverted‘ and this is one. Heard via the frankly odd confines of Dandelion Radio. As the host said, probably too pop for Dandelion, which is a great place to be, but it’s probably too different for 6Music or Radio 1 as well though. Which means although this should be #1 or top 10 it’ll probably be that Fake fellow for the millionth week and I still haven’t heard that…(nor do I want to: “what you say Drake? Rap is not pop, if you call it that then stop”).

Spray are an offshoot of The Cuban Boys, and I love the digs they get in about NME (now given out for free) and the whole ‘you’re an overnight cult success’ thing of Record Store Day and re-releases for obscure records that suddenly all the people who hated it are now a fan of. Out on May 11th and in my world should be a mega-hit. In fact it already is.

]]>https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/09/anthologised-by-cherry-red/feed/025961The Guerrilla Guide To Podcasting Part Fourhttps://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/09/the-guerrilla-guide-to-podcasting-part-four/
https://www.radioclash.com/archives/2018/04/09/the-guerrilla-guide-to-podcasting-part-four/#respondMon, 09 Apr 2018 08:30:27 +0000https://www.radioclash.com/?p=25896The fourth part in a series on making your own podcast that won’t break the bank, concentrating on DIY and low-cost podcasting. Read part one, part two and part three first. Plug in babies If your mic is USB –…

]]>The fourth part in a series on making your own podcast that won’t break the bank, concentrating on DIY and low-cost podcasting. Read part one, part two and part three first.

Plug in babies

If your mic is USB – and I really recommend that for first timers – you can skip to the next section (bonus points if you do a moonwalk slide).

But say you find a mic at the back of a cupboard, or borrow one from friends and it’s the older type? You need to plug your mic into something to turn those sounds in the children’s scribble that is called a waveform. What you use depends on how much you want to spend, if you’re going to have guests or cohosts, what kind of show you’re going to record.

The first type is an audio interface. previously a sound card but thr move to modular USB devices and miniaturisation usually means the device is a external. This could be anything from a cheap USB dongle, to a Mic?Line in already on your computer to a multi-input behemoth. The minimum is at least one input (usually expressed as 1×1, 1×2, etc). This can be a 1/8″ 3.5mm jack, a 1/4″ 6.5mm jack or an XLR input. XLR is an an audio connector beloved of studios and live performance spaces, and looks like a surprised face, 3 dots in a circle. You can get cables tor adapters that convert one type to another.

XLR connectors – you see, surprised face! Probably been electrocuted by a live earth. /Joking. Sorta. Photo by Michael Piotrowski – used under Creative Commons

As with anything, more is better…whatever you can afford. The better interfaces have quieter pre-amplifier – the bit that makes the microphone louder, and more options. A headphone monitor output with a volume control is really useful. If you have guests then another input is useful, but check if your device and software can cope with recording multiple inputs at once. Most can, but phones and some older computers will struggle or not support that.

Brands that are good: In the past I’ve used M-Audio and Native Instruments, those are good as well as Roland (see the note below though). My next purchase if I get one will be Focusrite Scarlett, but again those aren’t exactly cheap. Tascam makes good gear, as does Steinberg but seems their low-end devices have been upgraded as has unfortunately the price. Not tried the Behringer interfaces, make sure they have the right inputs/connectors you need. Unlike mixers, soundcards don’t have many moving parts, so second-hand is a good possibility – check that the interface is still supported by your device though, you can get drivers and support by going to the manufacturer’s website.

One of the reasons I’m less happy about M-Audio these days is they dumped support for Firewire – avoid interfaces which use that because they probably won’t have modern drivers, so it stopped working when I upgraded my computer. And Native Instruments has done likewise recent the Audio4DJ, it doesn’t work with OSX High Sierra. Irritating because your kettle or fridge doesn’t stop working when the manufacturer brings out a new model, why should they? Grr.

The other type of device for getting sound into your device is mixers, it used to be that you had to get an interface AND a mixer, but modern mixers have a USB interface built in. Why a mixer? Well mixers are needed if you are combining more than one audio signal together into one stereo output – say for a DJ set or a podcast, the theory is the same.

So if you have more than one microphone, a music show especially with external audio sources like vinyl or an iPod, a guest on Skype or really advanced a cohosted music show with one of the people on Skype – you’ll need to mix those audio sources somehow. Enter the mixer.

Like the interface you probably do need to future proof yourself by getting something with more channels than what you need unless you are 100% certain you’ll never use them. Or it’s the best you can afford.

Although it’s possible to do these things purely inside your computer (see the next section), it’s a lot easier to route audio physically with cables, you can usually see if the audio signal is there visually with LEDs and troubleshoot issues. If you do want to do Skype recording, you might need a slightly more advanced feature called ‘Sends’ also known as FX sends, so the person can hear you and/or the music you are playing, and/or multiple inputs on your interface. It depends on how the USB mixer feature is implemented.

So for a mixer I’d avoid anything less than 3 channels – because in mixer-land each channel is usually mono, with usually the ability to mix in one or more stereo inputs from ‘tape’ or ‘CD’ without fader, EQ or any controls. So for a basic mixer 3-4 channels is the starting point, less than that you may as well use an interface because you’re not really mixing, and won’t be that future proof.

Interface or mixer, which one you use depends in part what you’re trying to do. If you’re recording a solo podcast with no external music sources, then go for a simple interface. If you’re recording more than one voice, with possible external inputs, say from CD, vinyl, etc. then a mixer is probably the way to go.

Brands for mixers that are good: Mackie is great, amazingly quiet pre-amps (pre-amplifier is the thing that brings microphones up to a ‘line’ level), but expensive. Allen & Heath and Peavey are great but are also similarly priced. Mid to low-range is Alesis, Numark and Yamaha which are also reliable. Lower down in the stack are the likes of Behringer which personally I found rather noisy, but the non-USB version of Xenyx was my first proper mixer (well my first was an old audio mixer for video, but that lacked EQ). Pyle as well are apparently well regarded but I’ve not tried them…seems hard to get in the UK? As said before, get the best you can afford.

I’d avoid second-hand mixers unless they have been expertly refurbished, especially from music studios or those than smoke or live in dusty/dirty environments. Mixers have moving parts and these can easily get worn out, get trashed or covered in muck. If it’s from a friend and you know how well it’s been treated, or it’s one of the more high-end makes (Mackie et al) which are designed to be used heavily and last a long time and might be OK – go ahead. Otherwise it’s probably a false economy.

Virtual Insanity (without a silly hat)

So what if youve not got the space, or use a USB mic but have a friend coming around with another mic, or want to do a music show? Enter virtual mixers and virtual audio routing. You can combine, re-route, send and mix audio without leaving your computer. Thing is, it’s a lot more fiddly than a physical mixer unless you get some software that makes it simpler. Usually these works as a virtual soundcard driver, which rather than sending the audio to your speaker then sends it to other programs, to a recording input in your DAW, to Skype – whatever you want.

Voicemeeter Pro. Virtual mixers can have too many knobs and controls too! Take that DAWs!

If you are on Windows – pat yourself on the back cos this is one of the areas that Windoes pisses all over OSX, annoyingly (said the Mac user). You can get a free program called Voicemeeter Banana and it will work just like a mixer, so you can route and combine multiple mics, sources. Etc. My friend Ian over at the excellent Lloydbrary podcast uses Voicemeeter and it works perfectly. I’m jealous! There are quite a few other virtual soundcard devices – I used to use TotalRecorder in my pre-Mac days, if that’s still going? – which are free or cheap.

If you are on a Mac, prepare to either spend some money or fiddle with settings and/or open source software. First port of call it to experiment with what Apple calls ‘Aggregate Devices’, because for the majority of simple setups it’ll probably suit you best and it’s free!

These mean you can create your own virtual soundcard, adding inputs and outputs to one single device. Some have used this to cohost with Skype, I couldn’t get it to work – but this is how you can use one input from a different device or card and another output at the same time, or if your software like Traktor allows multiple outs, you can route your monitor mix to your speakers while outputting your master mix to a virtual output to your recording software. It won’t mix two or more sources together though, for that you’ll need other software.

I don’t like Rogue Amoeba’s rather expensive Loopback, I mean $99 for something you can get free on Windows? There is also rival Sound Siphon at a cheaper $39 but really this should be free or built in…Not sure SS does the same as Loopback, as ever download the trials and fiddle with them.

I do have a cheeky free alternative, download one of the screen capture/recorders from Apowersoft – I forget which one, I think it was either Screen Capture or Screen Recorder, and it’ll install a handy virtual device for you to use. Which although I uninstalled the app ages ago, it left the device there and it’s not time-limited. This is what I use to get my DJ audio into REAPER.

There is a few open source alternatives as well – JACK and Soundflower which if you are on Linux the former should also work well for you. I had some issues with it, because both my DJ programs, Traktor and Serato flatly refused to open when I installed JACK. Annoying cos it otherwise did exactly what I wanted to do, for free! And Soundflower works, but I’ve always found the signal very quiet.

If you just want to record Skype, you might find Audio Hijack combined with one of these virtual routing systems or Aggregate Device is a cheaper way to go. That’s the way I’ll go if I want to start cohosting on Skype again and it ‘only’ costs $59. Hmmph. RA, you really need to sort out your pricing, you’ve always been expensive! Which brings me to:

Remote Control

Recording podcasts with a remote host or interview guest especially a music show where the host needs to hear the music is way beyond this guide – think of that as super-advanced, the End of Level Big Boss of podcasting – it’s still something that still gives me nightmares to this day. You could ask the person to record their side on their device and send it to you, which is fine for a regular co-host or a fellow podcaster, but not so great for guests who wouldn’t even know which end of the mic to talk into. And you are one crash away from losing the whole show – it’s best to record both the Skype or VOIP stream AND individual parts because of this. Be paranoid is my motto, well about data loss anyway!

When recording remotely, hardware makes it a lot easier especially if you have a mixer that can do channel effect sends (so your host can hear you and/or the music!) or interface or USB mixer with more than 2 inputs and outputs and quite a few cables. But if you’re in the virtual domain, you might want to avoid using Skype as the quality can be frankly pants, and you can’t record each host separately. This is fairly essential as editing a natural conversation where people talk over each other, usually at the exact the point you need, well it’s a nightmare.

I am planning to get back into having remote podcasting hosts (when I did it before I used my big mixer and interface) and if I do I’ll probably use one of the VOIP recording/meeting hosting services. Think ‘Hangouts’ with knobs on, with recording and integration built in. Popular ones for podcasters are Zoom which has a free level at upto 40 mins and is more of a business meeting system but a lot of ‘pro’-casters use it. Zencastr has a free tier for upto 8 hours which looks the best for me and automates the remote recording I mentioned earlier. Others which cost or only have a free trial are Cast which also can act as a podcasting host (more about them in the next part), ipDTL, Ringr which works with phones, etc.

Apart from Ringr’s app they tend to work from within a browser, usually Chrome or Firefox (Apple doesn’t allow microphones to be used directly in Safari, being the usual killjoy it is renowned for). I haven’t yet worked out how you allow someone to hear playing music especially as I think browsers only allow one input and output…maybe I could use Audio Hijack, or use the internal soundboard that some of these services have and upload all the tracks.

As I said, it’s a complete headache and I’d really not suggest a beginning podcaster to do it unless they are doing a simple talking-head show, and even then….start simple.

Audio Hijack (your wallet).

Button Monitoring

Something to watch for with virtual mixing is something I’ve mentioned before, latency. This is the delay between the signal entering the computer, or from where it’s been routed, to where it ends up. This can make monitoring a pain as you get an echo. There are settings to reduce it, but you will never get rid of it especially listening back ‘monitoring’ your own vocals live – the computer or device isn’t a time traveller, there will always be a delay.

Why listen to yourself while you record? Well, it’s hard to explain, it seems that humans have this need to have a return from what sound they create to their ears – this is what makes the anechoic chamber so spooky, that the echo doesn’t come back. Part of this feedback loop helps you to check how you are being recorded, if you’re being too loud, too soft, etc. The best place to monitor that is the mixer, not the computer or recording device, or on the mic itself if it’s a USB one, because there is usually no or little delay/latency. If it’s an analog system, usually the delay is tiny, I used to monitor via my Sony PCM or Minidisc which was last in the chain…but do that with a digital recording and you’ll probably sound like you’re on the moon.

But if you can’t afford that, you might have to record without monitoring and listen back, and it’s just a little slower, that’s all. But you still need something to listen on, which brings me to…

Phone home

Headphones come in all shapes and sizes, but again it’s another area where people start to become hi-fi nerds. Yes, Beyer DT990’s are amazing, but the headphones I’ve used for recording, DJing and the like have been rather more prosaic. Earbuds are more than fine for podcasting, they’re portable, and pretty durable and you tend to have them anyway. Working up from that, any decentish make, but avoid what are called ‘open-back’ headphones. I’ve made that mistake, basically means they will feedback next to a mic when recording, which as well as painful is rather an annoying mistake. Go for closed-back or in-ear phones.

Yes you can even podcast with these. Photo by Chris Campbell Creative Commons

I recommend Sennheiser, as they tend to be fairly flat/neutral sounding. I have a battered pair of HD 25 SP’s which you saw in the first part, which are like the proverbial spade, most of it has been replaced, but they soldier on. AKG, Beyer, Audio-Technica – you’d probably not go wrong with those but tend on the expensive side, but not all, the cheaper versions are usually good value.

Phillips are surprisingly good, as well as Sony, Apple’s own iPod earbuds are fine as well. Skullcandy are a brand that I’ve tried to hate, all ‘urban’ and wacky but unlike Beats et al, they are also not bad although I’d not use them for mastering like Sony headphones tend to be rather bass heavy. And also no-brand and less high-street brands can be good as well. This market moves so quickly, I’d check reviews on WhatHiFi, Which, Amazon and other sites, cross reference them, use Fakespot – be aware of biased reviews, or lemons, but if several well-known sites say a pair is good, then it’s probably correct.

I’d avoid using Bluetooth phones though, unless you use the rare/higher-end aptx codec, it compresses the sound and quite often does funny things with DAWs. I tried it with REAPER and whereas iTunes et al are fine it suddenly goes a bit crazy/distorted and I have to switch to a wired cable. Also BT connections can drop, they aren’t 100%, which of course you’d not want in the middle of an important interview in a quiet space for the connection to drop and suddenly blare out into the cafe or train or wherever.

Obviously if you have a high-end headset, earPods etc you might be fine, but be aware that audio quality can suffer as they aren’t made for podcasting but for squeezing down telephone wires and audibility, not hi-fidelity. And Bluetooth connections like market shares can go down as well as up!

DJ Formats

So, you’ve recorded your first podcast be it simply via Sound Recorder, your laptop mic, a USB mic and a DAW, or your phone…(yes I can’t show you how to do that, there are too many ways and too many pieces of software out there. Manuals, help sites, forums and even courses in your software can help you there).

So what to export as? MP3. I don’t care what anyone else says, the only choice is MP3. It might not be the ‘best’ format, in fact it’s rather old in the tooth now and I personally use AAC/M4A for the music I rip or convert. But MP3 is the most supported across websites, podcast software, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify if you’re lucky enough to get on there, iPods and other MP3 players, desktop software…it might not have handy ‘chapters’ like AAC and whatever that odd Audible format is, but using those will shut out a lot of Linux and Windows users, and those with older devices that don’t support MPEG4 aka M4A/AAC.

Why? Well AAC is licensed, whereas MP3 has expired or been retroactively engineered, so it basically is license-free now. So it doesn’t cost people to add it to their hardware or software.

So the settings – this is a bit techy and there is no getting around that, it’s all a bit nerdy by nature so Google anything you don’t know:

Variable bitrate (VBR) is a good thing to enable, so set the target bitrate (bitrate is how much you’re compressing the file, higher the number is better, but a bigger file size) at roughly your target bitrate and it adjusts the bitrate automatically reduces the size of the show.

Not many reasons to change the sample rate nowadays (this is the range of frequencies encoded, for reasons too nerdy to mention it’s double the frequencies you might capture), and in fact like mono it can introduce all kinds of issues with playback so unless you suddenly want to sound like a Chipmunk, stay at 44khz or 48khz.

As regards to bitrate settings, it depends on what your show is. Spoken word only shows can go as low as 64kbs bitrate, but I’d bump that up unless you’re short of space or know you’re aiming for mobile listeners or those without broadband connection. Ideally more closer to 96kbs or 128kbs, I personally wouldn’t go below 128kbs nowadays cos you might get the dreaded artifacts, the watery, whispery sounds. Music shows need higher bitrates, again no lower than 128kbs unless there is a good reason. My shows are at 70-80% VBR which work out at around 200-250kbs.

If you’re using Constant Bit Rate, I’d bump those up a bit too, cos VBR works at a range between X and Y, and averages out to create the target bitrate, and thus contains some higher and some lower, whereas CBR is only that, no higher.

Stereo. Unless you are spoken word, always stereo. Avoid Joint Stereo, Intensity Stereo, M/S Stereo, L+R stereo, all those ‘clever’ things meant to reduce the size ‘psychoacoustically’. Nope, generally they do funny things when they get confused with certain tracks and can cause issues with playback. Although I’m sure now I’ll get the nerds at HydrogenAudio coming at me with knives, I’ve found they create weird effects especially at lower bitrates (128-192 or below). For the frankly small saving in file size you’ll make, it won’t be worth the risk of odd whispery noises all over your podcast.

Mono is common in spoken word, I have mixed feelings about that, I have come across a few players that don’t understand mono MP3s or play nor convert them properly. One odd thing is my live-streaming radio station (Classic Bootleg Radio) flatly refuses to work with mono files, which was a problem when I was re-broadcasting friend’s podcasts. I had to laboriously convert them all to dual channel stereo. So I personally wouldn’t, but if upload/webspace is limited?

As with anything, try different rates and see what the file sizes are, test and listen on various devices, phones, websites, iPads, iPods, MP3 players, anything you can get your hands on – especially listening on a laptop or cheap speaker cos they quite often reveal stereo > mono issues. I find something that starts to just sound bad on my super-pro Beyer headphones is best, because that means all things below that it’ll sound good. It’s a trade off. I found some odd artifacts with my older shows revealed in almost-mono speaker type settings, caused by bass. Filtering the EQ helped that, and switching off that Joint Stereo crap (grr).

Coming up in part five: Domains and websites, blogs and themes, submission that doesn’t involve whips or chains, social meeja and how to make friends and influence people, well at least get them to listen to your podcast. Maybe. Which I guess begging is a different form of submission?